258 Biographical Account of [AprIL, 
which Mr. Robison took of this matter, to the same system of 
prejudices on which we have had already occasion to animadvert. 
Such, indeed, was the force of those prejudices, that he considered 
the chemical nomenclature, the new system of measures, and the 
new calendar, as all three equally the contrivances of men, not so 
much interested for science, as for the superiority of their own 
nation. Now, whatever be said of the calendar, the project of 
uniform weights and measures is admitted to be an admirably con- 
trived system, which Britain is now following at a great distance ; 
and the new nomenclature of chemistry to be a real scientific im- 
provement, adopted all over Europe. Many of the radical words 
may depend on false theories, and may of course require to be 
changed; but though the matier pass away, the form will remain ; 
the words of the language may perish, but the mould in which the 
language was cast will never be destroyed.* The Lectures ap- 
peared in 1803. 
The last of Mr. Robison’s works was one which he had long 
projected, though he now set about the completion and arrange- 
ment of it for the first time. It was entitled, Elements of Mecha- 
nical Philosophy, being the Substance of a Course of Lectures on 
that Science. ‘ Mechanical philosophy” was with him a favourite 
expression; it was understood as synonymous with natural philo- 
sophy, and included the same branches. The first volume, the 
only one he lived to finish, included dynamics and astronomy, and 
was published in 1804, It is a work of great merit, and is acces- 
sible to those who have no more than an elementary knowledge of 
the mathematics. The short view of the phenomena prefixed to 
the physical astronomy is executed in a masterly manner. The 
same may be said, and perhaps even with more truth, of the phy- 
sical astronomy itself; for there are very few of the elementary 
treatises on that branch of science which can be compared with it, 
either for the facility of the demonstration, or the comprehensive- 
ness of the plan. ‘The first part is meant to be popular and histo- 
rical, and is so at the same time that it is philosophical and precise. 
The work is indeed highly estimable, and is entitled to much more 
success in the world than it has actually bad. é 
We have already taken notice of Mr. Robison’s illness, with 
which he had been now afflicted for the long period of 19 years, 
His sufferings, though not equal, had been often extremely severe. 
They had occasionally rendered him unable to discharge his duty 
in the college, and of late his friend, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Mac- 
knight, had, with great kindness and ability, frequently supplied 
* The high opinion which Mr. Robison elsewhere expresses of Lavoisier, is 
very remarkable. In his Astronomy, published a year after the Lectures, in 
stating Hook’s anticipation of the principles of gravitation, he concludes thus: 
“It is worthy of remark, thatin this clear and candid and modest exposition of 
a rational theory, Hook anticipated the discoveries of Newton, as he anticipated 
with equal distinctness and precision, the discoveries of Lavoisier, a philosopher 
inferior perhaps only to Newton,”—(Elements of Mechanical Philosophy, p. 288.) 
